{"id":245100,"date":"2023-11-14T10:19:15","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T10:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/?p=245100"},"modified":"2023-11-14T10:19:15","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T10:19:15","slug":"got-my-2023-honda-city-cvt-key-impressions-on-looks-features-engine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/news-features\/got-my-2023-honda-city-cvt-key-impressions-on-looks-features-engine\/","title":{"rendered":"Got my 2023 Honda City CVT: Key impressions on looks, features & engine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City is the perfect size and its neither too long and nor too short for our traffic laden city roads.<\/h2>\n

BHPian Senna_sempre<\/strong> recently shared this with other enthusiasts.<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n

Hey BHPians,<\/p>\n

Hope you all are doing great. We have taken the delivery of our Honda City Facelift on August 2nd and till today the car has a mileage of around 2000 Kilometers. I use the car for my short office commutes and we had done some highway runs as well.So I thought to pen down my thoughts about the ownership experience. This is my first ownership review and I hope I will meet the very high standards set by our esteemed forum in this regard.Please grab a cup of coffee and here we go.<\/p>\n

Why a new car?<\/h2>\n

The new car itch\/bug started in the last December22 and I finally brought a bugfix in July23.<\/p>\n

We had a Ford Figo S TDCi. I had a fuss free ownership and I absoultely had a blast in that pocket rocket.Whenever I took it for a spin I used to have a wide grin. The locomotive like Torque from that 1.5 TDCi mill was so much of fun.I really loved the looks, handling and trouble free ownership for 6 years.Of late after changing all four tires (Aplollo Alnac 4G 195\/55) at 48K odo the car developed peculiar issues.<\/p>\n

Maybe the issues were present before and was masked as I didnt go for any long drives during the pandemic period.The car used to pull to the left on all kinds of roads and my right shoulder started taking a toll due to this especially in the long drives. Checked alignment multiple times at Madhus, inspected Suspension components at FASS for wear and tear.Everything seems right.Then I noticed that the steering used to make tak tak sound while rotating when the car is stationary which was not present before.FASS said that the entire steering column had gone kaput but totally safe to drive and replacing it will solve all the issues including the left pulling.The estimated bill is around 30K and they also told me that I also need to replace the Engine+Gearbox mounts soon as they are worn which will push the total bill North of 50K including labour charges.<\/p>\n

July23 : We went to a long trip to Chikmagalur on the occasion of Wifey’s birthday and my beloved Figo perfomed horribly on the highway.The famed handling was gone and the car used to feel nervy at highway speeds or maybe I felt it so as my mind was lingering on these niggles.<\/p>\n

So I decided to let it go as i’m not enjoying it like before and not worth reparing it as it might not run like before.Also the small boot space of 257 liters didnt help further as my family had grown two feet long.The ODO was at 53.5K Kms and I sold it to OLX Autos for 4.63 Lakhs as they offered better price among all the competitors.The offered price seemed decent for a Ford.I didn’t expect that I will let it go like this but I had to take the decision due to the reasons mentioned above.<\/p>\n

Few parting shots of that little beast before selling.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Why Honda City?<\/p>\n

I am a sedan guy and probably among the minority who still adores the looks of a 3 boxed body.I initially had a budget of 15 lakhs but extended it to 20 lakhs to get the Topend as it made no sense to settle for the lower variants due to the distribution of must have+nice to have features (after a debate with Wifey).So the options are very clear for me and the main requirements are Good looks+saftey+latest tech.<\/p>\n

So I shortlisted Honda City Facelift, Virtus\/Slavia twins and the New Verna.<\/p>\n

Virtus\/Slavia : Probably these two are the worthy successors of the Figo S in terms of handling department.These two are still proper enthusiasts choice among the midsize sedans in India. For 19-20 Lakh on road I was getting only the 1.0 TSi+DSG combo in Bengaluru.The DSG reliablity concerns,niggles with VW 2.0 products,the weak HVAC (dont know if that is fixed now) and no Level 2 ADAS tech didnt help me either. So I had to rule these two cars out.<\/p>\n

New Verna : I absolutely love the way it looks. It looks radical, edgy and futuristic.The all Black color of the 1.5 Turbo variant is just dope. The shortlisted variant is the 1.5 Turbo SX(O) DCT because of Level 2 ADAS with the segment best 158 horses. ADAS might not be too useful for our road conditions now but its nice to have IMHO.The onroad price was breaching more than 24 lakhs in Bengaluru.I already made a big stretch in terms of budget and still could have extended it to another 4-5 lakhs but decided to repay my Home Loan with that extra money as it saves big bucks towards the interest paid to the bank.After a lot of contemplation I had to let this go as well.The SX(O) IVT is ruled out because I felt it too sedate to drive when compared to City’s CVT.Will I regret not going for the 1.5 Turbo DCT now? Maybe Yes!<\/p>\n

Honda City Facelift : From a very long time the City was the King among mid size sedans and its a no non sense family car. When the 5th gen was launched back in 2020 the competition was just hanging onto a very thin thread in that segment. The City just dominated them with aplomb. But the competion now is awake and very fierce.The sales chart just shows that the hunter is being hunted now.What makes the City relevant now? Still the icing on the cake is the awesome 1.5 i-VTEC coupled with Honda’s reliability.The Facelift spruced up the looks as the chrome bar is thinner and the subtle cosmetic changes made it look really aggressive particularly in ZX trim.The big change in the facelift is the inclusion of Honda Sensing the Level 2 ADAS tech (More on this later). So the City has good looks,Level 2 ADAS and all the Safety (Traditionally Honda cars performed better in crash tests and I expect the New City might atleast equals the Safety rating of its predecessor the 4th gen).Also what can go wrong with a Honda.So this sealed the deal for me and I decided to go for the ZX CVT as the variant of choice. The reason for the automatic is its ease of use in the infamous Bengaluru traffic and in the future wifey might share driving duties with me.<\/p>\n

Pre Delivery Inspection<\/h2>\n

I have got the March 2023 manufactured model. I visited the Stockyard and this is how it looked during the PDI.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The ODO was 8 KMS.I have done the full Team-BHP recommended PDI and inspected every detail of the car. Satisfied with everything, I gave a go ahead to the dealreship for the allotment after noting down the VIN,Engine and battery numbers.We selected Platinum White Pearl as it makes the City look classy and long .Also it has great cosmetic mod potential.<\/p>\n

Price Break up:<\/p>\n

Thanks to the networking & support of my friends, I have got a flat 50K discount on the Ex showroom price for the ZX CVT. Even the dealership guys (Whitefield Honda) accepted that there are no discounts going on and only my friend with his circle could pull this through.<\/p>\n

Also thanks to the advice of another friend to not to spend too much money as downpayment and rather to use that extra money to pay towards Home loan principle.This will inturn reduce the Home loan tenure significantly.Also the interest amount paid towards the car loan is significantly lesser than the home loan and I followed his advice.<\/p>\n